What did you do to your X1/9 today ?

Brakes are on the "to do" list

Nice Jim but those shocks make your brakes look really bad:p

The brakes will get re-done some time this spring JJ. The current set are functional, but fugly. The cooling system will be worked on next. It is drawing air into the radiator from somewhere, I have to purge the rad before every drive. The system cools just fine once purged, but there is obviously a small leak somewhere.
 
Nice Jim. Don't forget to re-adjust your alignment.

Curious how you measured to adjust the camber or are you not there yet?

They look VERY nice and I can attest they perform awesomely!
 
Installed new leather dashboard and center console

Sent a couple dashboards and some center consoles to Henk to get covered in leather. I installed mine last night - extremely happy with how it turned out. Still have a few things to button up...

 
not there yet

Hi Tim

I just did the initial install so far. Matt sent a thorough list of instructions, so I know what to do. My neighbor has a camber measuring tool that we will use to set the camber.
 
Sent a couple dashboards and some center consoles to Henk to get covered in leather. I installed mine last night - extremely happy with how it turned out. Still have a few things to button up...


:thumbsup:
Looks great, Rudy!
So it's just Mike's car then next weekend?
 
:thumbsup:
Looks great, Rudy!
So it's just Mike's car then next weekend?

Yes sir. Mine was just a straight install since I did not have the dash/console to remove whereas Mike's will be a "plug-n-pray" type of install with us needing to remove everything first. Trying to save some time since we'll also be doing his brake and clutch masters....
 
Reboot

Got the '86 started today. As far as I can tell it hasn't been running since 2009. I bought it for $500 from a local...he even towed it to my barn.

Anyhow, ALL the F/I wiring had been eaten by mice. Yanked all that, stuck a well-built 32 Weber on it, as well as a header. Using the Yugo style Ignition module, and after setting the timing, she started on the first try! Pulled all the smog garbage required in California...must have been 40 pounds of crap attached to that poor little 1.5.

Now, on to the clutch/brake masters, as well as the clutch slave and we should have a nice running and stopping car. The previous owner said the clutch was fine, and that he was commuting in the car before it got parked at his elderly fathers' place (to sit unused).

Fingers crossed!

BTW, the car is going to a mid-western state where there are NO smog laws/inspections.
 
Installed a Bob Brown insertable headlight harness

WooHoo! easy-peasy :)
I bought the harness in Nov. 2012, and just finally got around to that little project, but glad that its done. Should hopefully keep the voltmeter out of the red when driving at night in the rain with the wipers going too. Though, we are now on daylight savings, AND its supposed to be nice the next few days, so hopefully not testing it too hard in the next few days.
I just expected routing the power, etc to be a lot harder, but it was actually quite easy.
 
That reminds me I gotta tighten up my belt! The dreadful squeal, the voltage drop AHHH

Removed the seats, the center console, the ebrake trim, then all the carpet. Interior got a bit wet, subsequently ruined the insulation.
Started removing the hard tar stuff too.

Now to find manual window equipment and get rid of the auto windows!
 
Impulse is a terrible thing:innocent: I really need to stop buying everything that gets my heart pumping for my X.




I couldn't resist buying this gorgeous anodized red quick release for my MOMO steering wheel. I wish it had a key lock, so I wouldn't have to carry around my steering wheel every time I leave my car unattended with the top off.:mallet:

'PeteX1/9
 
Worked on some rust...

I worked on the battery box area. I just bought the car and the previous owner apparently had some battery trouble and didn't clean it up too well..
 
Measured the center console.

Not really much I admit, but it's cooooold out there:p
Was checking out the dimensions of my current (1980 model) center console so I could find out how it compared to the newer bertone ones.
I'd heard once that after bertone took over production that there had been another interior redesign that supposedly made it a bit easier for tall guys to fit inside again.
That made me wonder if they had narrowed the center console again for the newer models.
So I went to see what I had for comparison.
Widest part (near the top) was about 10-10 1/2 inches depending on how I measured it.
80_Center_Console.jpg

Not sure yet how that compares to the newer bertones yet.
Also don't know the dimensions of the 78 and older ones yet.
So far all I know is I never had any problems when I had a 78, but with the 80 center console my leg would have to make a U-turn to reach the gas pedal from a normal seating position.
Not really progress this time out, but next work that needs to be done is a big enough list (at least for me) that I need the weather to be a little better.
Need to: finish hooking up gas tank, reinstall fuel pump and filters, drop starter to attempt to clean it up and whatnot to make it more reliable, finish cleaning up some grounds and connections, reinstall battery, put gas in tank, turn ignition, *see what happens*?
Either that or: work on wife's car instead... Booo!
:\
:p
 
Set the camber on my 85

Finally got around to setting the camber on my autoX with it's new MWB Konis. My neighbor had a Longacre camber gauge, but figuring out exactly how to set the camber turned into an all day project. We finally settled on a process of checking the initial camber reading off the hub without a wheel. Then put a steelie on (so the magnet could stick) and settle the car. Take another reading from the wheel. Compare the two readings, remove the wheel, adjust the slotted bolt and put the wheel back on. Repeat till happy with the "wheel on" camber reading.





After a little practice it got easier, by the 4th wheel I was looking like I knew what I was doing. After we struggled with the first wheel for a while, we decided to mark the wheel and hub with a Sharpie so that we consistently positioned the hub and wheel as we went thru the process. Then used that same wheel for all 4 corners as well. I am sure there is a better way, but this seemed to work with the tools at hand.

I had the car up on the wheel dollies in the hope that I could reach under and work the strut bolts and also be able to adjust the wheel position. This worked on the fronts pretty well, but the rears were not cooperative, mostly due to the assortment of sockets and extensions I had. Nothing seemed to put me in position to get a good bite on the nut, so I fell back to the on/off/on/off approach rather than round the nuts in frustration.

Anyway, in the end I hit the -1 degree mark I was looking for at all 4 corners. I "think" I learned something. Maybe. If I keep at this autocrossing hobby I will have many more opportunities to try and improve on this process.

Next up... learning to mount and balance tires.
 
Nice:D

Good luck on your wheel mount/balance adventure as well:D

When I was back in highschool maaaaany years ago, I went to mount the old pirellis from my 327 powered vega onto my fiat 850 rims and maaaaan that was a pian. the lip of the 850 rims was just a little bit too tall for those tires so they just wouldn't go on without a fight.
I'd only mounted them for the rear though so when I went to buy a brand new pair for the front, and decided hey, why go through all that trouble again? so I let sam's club go ahead and mount the new ones.
Well, long story short, I did a better job myself. those two new tires never would hold air. don't know if they didn't clean the rim bead area or just destroyed the tire bead in the process of installing them.
I'd think the X rims don't have the high lip though, so that's something worth being thankful for.
Again, have fun and good luck on your project:D
 
Stripping my Exxie...

I've been slowly stripping my Gran Finale, with the intention of restoring/modding it into an early model 1300 lookey-likey... :jedi:

So...Today, I removed the seats, the windscreen, and rear trim surround...still restoring the 1/4 bumpers, and still have to restore engine cover and front grill...I'm waiting for the engine side grills to arrive..!!
 
Electrical Work

The weatherman called for rain this afternoon, so it gave me the perfect opportunity to do a little electrical work.

I had already installed bbrown headlight relays, and both wiper relays and window relays compliments of DC Fiats tech days (http://www.dcfiats.org/). So, the battery terminal was beginning to look like and octopus..

I had already picked up 8 gauge power cable and the following
battery terminal.
efxcbt4_1000.jpg


Quad Distribution block

61EVnOgUaIL._SL1500_.jpg


My 86 had a spare positive terminal in the fuse block so a landing place for the wire was a given. NAPA had a female connector designed as a crimp on for 12 gauge wire that had the correct sice spade for the fuse block. I pulled off the crimp insulation and opened up the circle you normally insert the wire into, giving me a place to land the 8 gauge wire and solder it in place. A little shrink tubing and it looks good. The battery cable now feeds over to the quad distribution block which handles all the relay wires.

I was able to finish the job without large showers of sparks and everything works. I took her out for a test drive and I swear that the voltage meter on the dash is registering a little higher without bouncing around depending on the RPM of the engine...
Z
 
Wheel bearings part 1

I have been promising to replace the rear wheel bearings and finally got around to it. Pictures – louder than words and all that so here it is.






















 
Back
Top